


The Black Paladin's Ghost

by Akumeoi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ghosts, M/M, Plot Twists, hunk to the rescue!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-11 22:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15981509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi
Summary: Instead of calling to Lance in the Astral Plane, Shiro calls to Hunk. Instead of ignoring the strange event, Hunk resolves to investigate and see what's become of their leader.





	The Black Paladin's Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [Voltron Rarepair Flash Bang 2018](https://voltronrarepairflashbang.tumblr.com/) (of which I was also a mod). I may have tried to cram too much story into 1,500 words... but hey, that's half the fun of the event.
> 
> Thank you to the lovely [lidoshka](http://lidoshka.tumblr.com/), who illustrated this fic. You went above and beyond the requirements of the event, and I can't be happier with the art that you drew for me. You were a joy to work with! ♥
> 
> [[Click here for more illustrations by lidoshka!](http://lidoshka.tumblr.com/post/178470638905/art-for-the-story-the-black-paladins-ghost-by)]

On Lance’s signal, Hunk slammed his bayard into the port in the Yellow Lion’s dashboard, praying the paladins’ combined actions would be enough for them to interface with Voltron in spite of the virus immobilising it. He closed his eyes, reaching deep within himself for the connection he had with his lion and with the other paladins. It was a pulse of feeling deep within him that when grasped, led straight to the paladins’ Astral meeting place like a shining trail. When he opened his eyes, the silver winds of the Astral Plane swirled and coursed around him, as the other paladins began to appear there in circles of coloured light.

Allura noticed it first. Someone was missing.

“Shiro!” she called, and Hunk looked over at Shiro’s empty space, panic coursing through his veins. Was Shiro hurt? Did he need help? Hunk didn’t know how to reach out to him, save for calling his name. The other paladins began to call for him as well, adding their voices together in an eerie, haunting chorus.

_Shiro!_

_Shiro!_

_Shiro!_

The black paladin’s purple-silhouetted figure finally flickered into view, and Hunk – while not totally relieved, given the general circumstances – felt a touch of anxiety lift. Shiro was there, they were gonna fight, everything was gonna be okay.

Still, was there something weird about Shiro’s astral projection? It was hard to tell from where Hunk was standing, but he couldn’t make out Shiro’s face.

It was at that moment that Hunk realised he’d been staring too long, and all the other paladins had already linked minds and disappeared. He hastily started trying to link up with them, but then Shiro then called his name.

“Hunk!” he said. “Listen to me – Hunk!”

But it was too late – Hunk was already being swept away in the cosmic tides.

*****

After the battle was over, Hunk had gone to Shiro and asked what had happened. But Shiro had been unable to recall that moment, and seemed confused when Hunk had pressed him. That, to Hunk... was suspicious. Not that he didn’t trust Shiro, but he was worried about him. He had headaches all the time, seemed stressed and just... wandered, sometimes.

Determined to find out what was going on, Hunk returned to the Astral Plane by meditating inside the Yellow Lion. When he got there, he found himself in the same mind-meeting place he’d arrived at last time. The other paladins were gone, and the places where they stood were dark. Turning to Shiro’s spot, Hunk noticed something strange. Although Shiro was also absent, the purple disc marking where he’d stand was illuminated, just like the golden disc underneath Hunk’s feet.

“Shiro?” Hunk called out, but his voice felt small, and barely echoed in the infinite void. There was no reply.

A few days later saw Hunk down in the Black Lion’s hangar, snooping around with a home-made paranormal radio device. It was supposed to jump from radio frequency to frequency at a speed so fast that ghosts could manipulate the static to communicate. Hunk was looking for – something. What, he wasn’t entirely sure... Maybe this device could be used to communicate directly with the Black Lion, or it would pick up other weird clues like the lit-up purple disc.

The static crackled loudly as Hunk paced back and forth beside the Black Lion. He hoped he wasn’t annoying her. As he reached the Lion’s head, the static began to glitch, changing into something Hunk hoped would be a purr.

“Hey, Lion,” he said excitedly. “How’s it going? Sorry to bother you. I’m trying to help Shiro.”

The static stuttered, morphing into a sound, a sound which repeated and became an intelligible word.

“Hunk...”

“Yeah, I’m here, I’m listening,” Hunk said, stepping close enough to the Lion that he was neatly tucked into the space beneath its jaw.

The staticky, robotic voice spoke again. Distorted this time, and Hunk could barely make it out.

“Huh?” Hunk said, then waited for the Lion to reply.

“It’s me... Shiro.”

“Shiro?” Hunk exclaimed.

Shiro, if it was really him, spoke again. And when he did, Hunk couldn’t believe his ears.

“Hunk, the Shiro you know... is not the real me. I died...”

*****  
A few weeks later, Hunk was wheeling a cloth-draped pallet into the Black Lion’s hangar. The Lion didn’t move as he entered, but Hunk liked to imagine that he saw a twinkle of approval in her unblinking eyes. He dragged the pallet over to the Lion’s front paws, addressing her and Shiro’s presumed ghost conversationally.

“Hellooooo. Lion, Shiro. I can’t see you, Shiro, but I know you’re there.” Hunk paused, bringing the pallet to a stop. “I mean, I hope you’re there, because I made you something.”

His hand hovered over the sheet draping the pallet. A strange, bulky form lay beneath.

“Do I know if this will work?” Hunk mused. “No. No, I don’t. But we’re gonna do this anyway.”

With that, he whipped the sheet away from the pallet, to reveal what appeared to be a robotic human form, roughly Shiro’s height, and painted with the Black Lion’s colours. There was a divot in the robot’s chest which was remarkably reminiscent of the slot a bayard would rest in inside a Lion. If Shiro really had been present to see this, his jaw would have dropped with surprise, because the black bayard was indeed resting on the pallet beside the robot.

“You like it?” Hunk said, picking up the bayard. “It was really hard to steal this from the other you, but all of that sneaking around to read people’s diaries really paid off.”

With that, he held it aloft. “Shiro, if you can hear this, just grab your bayard, okay?”

Hunk stood there for a few moments, praying to himself that ghost Shiro really was there, he wasn’t crazy, and that these past few weeks of work hadn’t been for nothing. He didn’t know what was going on with the Shiro who was currently their leader. Maybe he was a clone, or maybe he was a robot. If this experiment worked, either leader-Shiro or robot-Shiro would explain it all to him. They had to. Otherwise Hunk was stuck telling everyone this entire insane story, and he didn’t think he’d be able to do that without getting laughed out of the Castle of Lions.

He just needed Shiro to be okay.

After a few moments when nothing happened, Hunk started to sweat. He felt like an idiot, holding up the bayard to thin air. He weakly repeated the instructions to Shiro aloud, then wished he had brought the ghost radio with him.

His arm was starting to flag when all of a sudden, the Black Lion’s eyes flashed. She dipped her head towards the robot on the pallet, and Hunk took a step backwards in surprise.

 _Oh quiznak, please don’t eat me,_ he thought to himself. The bayard began to glow purple.

“Yes!” Hunk crowed, slamming the bayard into the waiting spot on the robot’s chest. At once it moved with a force of its own, turning and locking into place. Looking on, Hunk clenched his fists in anticipation. The purple glow spread outwards from the robot’s chest to cover its entire body. Its mechanical eyelids lifted, revealing purple-glowing eyes beneath (Hunk had made them out of little screens). The glow around the rest of the robot faded, and then Hunk found himself looking down into that eerie purple gaze.

“Shiro...?” Hunk said, belatedly wondering if he might have let some kind of evil ghost into the robot by accident. Could it be Zarkon’s ghost? Did Zarkon even have a ghost? “Please don’t be Zarkon’s ghost.”

The robot laughed. It was a weird, metallic sounding noise – but if Hunk wasn’t mistaken, it sounded just like Shiro, laughing through a tin can.

“It’s not Zarkon, it’s me, Shiro,” he said. Slowly, robot Shiro started trying to sit up. It took him a few moments, but soon he had control over most of his limbs and was sitting upright.

“Shiro, there’s another you, walking around, in what I think is your body,” Hunk started, needing Shiro to know the immediate situation. Then he stopped. “Is it really you?” he said in a small voice.

Robot Shiro’s eyes locked with his. “It’s really me,” he said. “Takashi Shirogane here. Black paladin and leader of Voltron.” His calm, authoritative voice, that Hunk loved so much and had so longed to hear in those weeks he was building the robot alone, resonated in the quiet hangar.

“Oh,” Hunk managed to say. “Good... good.” He looked down. “Because I missed you.”

“Hey,” Shiro said in return. “Hunk, I- I can’t thank you enough. Building this robot for me. I’m finally in the real world again.”

He stopped. Hunk looked up and saw that the light in his eyes seemed to have dimmed, as if his ghostly pupils were clouded with emotion. 

“I missed you too,” Shiro said.


End file.
